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Colts re-sign Dwight Freeney

Defensive end Dwight Freeney has spent his entire football career chasing and sacking quarterbacks. Now, he's going to be paid as the premier player at his position.

Freeney, the Indianapolis Colts' franchise player, signed a six-year, $72 million contract with the team Friday that includes a $30 million signing bonus. He becomes the highest paid defensive player in NFL history.

"To have me paid among the top players in the league -- not just as a defensive players -- means a lot of me," said Freeney, who flew to Indianapolis on Thursday night in anticipation of accepting the deal. "[Colts general manager] Bill Polian is the one who drafted me. I was hand-picked by him. He was going to do the right thing for the organization."

Polian drafted Freeney in the first round in 2002 and watched him develop into one of the game's most disruptive defensive players. Freeney registered 56 1/2 sacks during his first five seasons with the Colts and has forced 27 fumbles during his career.

Re: Colts re-sign Dwight Freeney

I'm largely ignorant of the NFL salary structure/cap/what have you. What does this signing do to our ability to improve the team?

Likely reduces Freeny's cap number from 9-10 million this year (and 13 million next year if he had to be tagged again) to somwhere around 5ish for the first 4 years, then up to 9ish for the 5th, then outrageous for the 6th. So we cut his cap number significantly. Combine this with our activation of Simon, who will now likely be officially waived, and the Colts have opened enough room to sign rookies and have some spare room under the cap. I wouldn't expect any more free agents, however.

Re: Colts re-sign Dwight Freeney

Thats a lot of money for Freeney but its about time we paid up to keep one of our big time defensive players.

We let all those players go for the specific purpose of signing Freeney and Sanders. We had a choice between having a bunch of good players and no great ones, and a pair of great ones with solid rookie contract players surrounding them. We went with the later, and thank god we did.

Re: Colts re-sign Dwight Freeney

Thats a lot of money for Freeney but its about time we paid up to keep one of our big time defensive players.

Freeney's the first big time defensive player the Colts have had in forever. Other than letting Ray Buchanan go, I can't really think of anyone that was a mistake to let leave. Siragusa, I guess, but he was a little more big than big-time.

Re: Colts re-sign Dwight Freeney

Freeney's the first big time defensive player the Colts have had in forever. Other than letting Ray Buchanan go, I can't really think of anyone that was a mistake to let leave. Siragusa, I guess.

Exactly, Washington, Peterson, Thornton June etc. The Colts have been great and getting young moderate talent in, and then letting them walk at just the right time to avoid giving them a big contract, with a few young players right behind them waiting to step in right away. It's a balancing act with the hard cap and the Colts have been one of the best at it.

The Colts have kept the only two game changing players they have on D and rightfully so. Not alot of cap room left after signing their own players, but I heard they are looking at possibly one more trade perhaps for another D linemen.

Re: Colts re-sign Dwight Freeney

I know the Colts' were very chagrined to see David Thornton go and that showed up big time last year with the SAM debacle that didn't get fixed until they moved Rob Morris in there late in the year. They have taken some calculated gambles for sure, but I think the Corey Simon activation today was in some way related to the Freeney signing. Simon will probably be waived very soon.

Re: Colts re-sign Dwight Freeney

Nice, good to hear in an age, where players on good teams and good teams don't seem to be willing to sit down and work out a contract, IE um Briggs, Samuel(although thats good for the Colts) and Edge(also good for the Colts)

Well if Sanders and the guys can just not be crappy against the run, and force the other team to pass more often Freeney should be worth the money.

Re: Colts re-sign Dwight Freeney

Rotoworld sums it up exactly how it is:

ESPN's John Clayton reports that the Colts have signed Dwight Freeney to a six-year, $72 million contract with a $30 million signing bonus.That makes him the highest paid defender in NFL history. Freeney may be too one-dimensional to be worth it, but he'd still get more on the open market. Freeney gets $37.72 in the first three years, although the Colts actually save over $3 million in cap room in 2007. Indy has a lot of cap room tied up in two players, but it's easier to manage now with a vastly increased salary cap.

Re: Colts re-sign Dwight Freeney

Freeney is a lot like Ichiro Suzuki. They don't mean anything on their own, but under the right conditions they can be devastating.

Ichiro just needs someone batting 2-4 to put the ball in play so that he can run around the bases, but once they do he's unstoppable. And Freeney needs either the rest of the D to stuff the run OR he needs the offense to build a big lead. But once that happens, he is a wrecking ball.

It is hard to access the value of these "prerequisite" guys, but I just Polian to build a team and Dungy to coach it so that Freeney has the chance to shine.

Re: Colts re-sign Dwight Freeney

Freeney's the first big time defensive player the Colts have had in forever. Other than letting Ray Buchanan go, I can't really think of anyone that was a mistake to let leave. Siragusa, I guess, but he was a little more big than big-time.

Yeah big time is probably too much, but I think you get the general idea. ESPN just had a graphic claiming that the Colts now have 2 of the 3 top paid players in the NFL based on yearly salary.

Peyton at 14 million
Vick at 13 million
then Dwight at 12 million.

Its obviously not as simple as that, but thats interesting none the less.
I just hope Dwight produces a better season this year then he did last. (Individually of course)

Re: Colts re-sign Dwight Freeney

They obviously had to find a way to keep Freeney around. But I
worry a bit about him peaking and falling off pretty quickly sometime
in the next 2-3 years. As a guy who relies primarily on his short area
burst, all it'll take is losing a 1/4-1/2 step and that'll be enough to
make the difference between getting around the corner on a speed
rush against NFL LOT's or not.